links for 2009-07-09

"UK internet service provider TalkTalk has pulled the plug on its agreement with online behaviour tracking firm Phorm." Another ISP goes down.

"Andrew Napolitano falsely claimed that in the GM bankruptcy proceedings, "[t]here was no testimony whatsoever in court." In fact, the judge overseeing the case stated that there was in-court testimony. " For being a judge how do you not know how to read a court transcript?

"The Swiss government, vowing to protect its vaunted bank secrecy laws, said on Wednesday that it was prepared to seize UBS client data rather than allow the bank to hand it over to the United States to settle a tax case."

"A court in Saudi Arabia has issued verdicts, prosecutors say, in what is thought to be the first terrorism trial for al-Qaeda militants in the kingdom. Justice ministry officials say 330 had been on trial, but they did not specify how many had been found guilty. One defendant was given a death sentence."

"I've just received notice of a new modeling tool that allows education researchers to play out proposed education scenarios and policies in simulated form to test for those programs with favorable/positive outcomes." Interesting.

"But the panic seems to be subsiding. Rates are still well above their post-Lehman lows, when credit markets were completely frozen and everyone was piling into govt. debt. But they’re low by historical standards, and not giving much ammunition to the worriers these days."

"Today 23andMe has announced that it’s launching a much cheaper $99 version of its product as part of a new Research Revolution, which is meant to help 23andMe initiate research studies on genetic diseases that would otherwise require major logistical hurdles and funding. The effort is part of the company’s 23andWe research arm, which has the goal of building grassroots studies from communities of members who are afflicted by various genetic diseases." Cool idea.

"This wonderful vacuum tube chess set, by maker Paul Fryer, actually has electricity running inside the board so that the tubes can draw power and glow as you move them from square to square. It is called, somewhat appropriately, Chess Set for Tesla, and Paul actually made seven sets last year." This is awesome.

"On Thursday, the companies plan to announce that Best Buy will heavily promote TiVo products in its 1,100 stores in the United States. TiVo will develop a version of its set-top box, to be sold in Best Buy stores, that will let the retailer advertise its products and services to TiVo subscribers on their home televisions."

"Undercover investigators managed to smuggle bomb-making materials into key US government buildings on 10 occasions last year, a congressional report says. The Government Accountability Office said that once inside the buildings, investigators were able to assemble bombs and carry them around freely. The infiltrated buildings included the offices of a senator and a congressman. The report cited instances of guards falling asleep on the job or failing to detect explosives at x-ray scanners." Yeah Homeland Security.

"A drug discovered in the soil of a South Pacific island may help to fight the ageing process, research suggests. When US scientists treated old mice with rapamycin it extended their expected lifespan by up to 38%."

"The White House has nominated Stephen Rapp, a well-known figure in international criminal law, to be ambassador at large for war crimes issues."

Kinda like strip poker only with resumes.

"Possession of pornography is now a criminal offense in Ukraine, Lenta.ru reports, after Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a law to that effect today. Human rights activists and members of the Ukrainian artistic community had asked the president to veto the law." Stupid.

"So in just three years, this community's use of IE has gone from 63% to 18%, Firefox has gone from 28% to almost 50%, and Safari has tripled from 6% to 18%. So Chrome may be under 10% right now, but in three years, it could easily be the leading browser in this community. Browsers apparently don't command that much loyalty and switching costs are low. That said, I'm not moving to Chrome unless I can take my Firefox extensions with me."

"A pivotal question for regulators is what Apple’s board knew at the time of Jobs’s Jan. 5 announcement that he had a hormone imbalance and a Jan. 14 statement that he was taking a 5 ½-month medical leave, said the person, who declined to be identified because the probe is confidential. Jobs went on to have a liver transplant during his leave. SEC investigators want to be sure that Jobs’s January disclosures didn’t mislead investors, the person said. Bloomberg News reported in January that the SEC had opened the probe. "

"Sean Hannity deceptively cropped President Obama's answer to a question about the Cold War to suggest that Obama did not acknowledge the actions of past U.S. presidents in freeing Eastern Europe." It must be hard for Sean Hannity to listen to more than 10 seconds of anybody.

What exactly is a petabyte.

"It looks like Amazon had dropped the price of the latest generation Kindle 2, the 6-inch reading wireless reading device, from $359 to $299. I’m actually kicking myself right now because I just purchased the same one for the higher price a few days ago."

"Why were so many people in the technology world wrong about Hulu? It was an idea that seemed like a relic of the worst excesses of the dot-com era: a portal for content run by a joint venture of media companies. Could any venture have more going against it?" Hulu does totally work.

Usability is not everything.